Meta rolled out Muse Image, one of its features allows strangers to generate images from people's public Instagram photos by simply @-mentioning their public Instagram accounts, with the burden placed on the user to opt out. Meta backed down on 10 July, but only on this one specific feature as a form of PR damage control whilst Muse Image itself is still rolling out and is very much alive across Meta AI. Meta did not indicate whether it will be reintroduced again in the futur

This Friday, Meta will remove end-to-end encryption from Instagram DMs. Mark Zuckerberg's company said that this is due to low opt-in rates. It is true that Instagram was never built for private communications, but for activists, grassroots organisers, queer support networks, mutual aid groups, and community campaigns, Instagram IS the infrastructure. Telling people to "just move to Signal" ignores the fact that you cannot move a decade of community building overnight. The pe

📲 Can you imagine showing your face & ID just to keep your social media account? That’s what the Philippines and Thailand are pushing for with mandatory social media account verification. While promises of “online safety” and “battling disinformation” look good on paper, we must treat it for what this truly is: an extension of state surveillance and a deliberate attack on political freedoms. As Manushya Foundation’s Digital Rights Advisor Jean Linis-Dinco highlights in our b